Sunny and dry weather will close out the last weekend in January. Dry and increasingly mild weather will extend into the middle of next week before we start to get a hint of a more active weather pattern towards the end of next week.
The Pacific Northwest is between two large scale weather features; the first a strong ridge of high pressure that's centered offshore and directing the storm track well to our north and second, a closed upper low over California. The upper level ridge will start to become the dominant weather feature as it nudges closer to the coast and noses into southern British Columbia over the next 36 hrs. Milder air and high freezing levels will show up along the Olympics and west slopes of the Cascades today with the battleground near the Cascade crest where colder temperatures are entrenched along the east slopes of the Cascades, and especially further south near Mt Hood. E-NE winds will finally ease today, hanging on the longest near Mt Hood, as the closed upper low pulls further south.
Expect even milder conditions and generally light winds on Monday.
Weather Forecast
Olympics
West North
West Central
West South
Stevens Pass
Snoqualmie Pass
East North
East Central
East South
Mt. Hood
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Sunday
Mostly sunny. Light ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Night
Mostly clear. Light ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. Light to occasionally moderate ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Night
Mostly clear. Light ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. Light to occasionally moderate ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Night
Mostly clear. Light ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. Cooler eastern part of the zone including near White Pass. Light to moderate ridgeline winds easing in the afternoon.
Sunday
Night
Mostly clear. Light to occasionally moderate ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. Milder upper slopes, cooler lower slopes. Light to occasionally moderate E ridgeline and Pass level winds.
Sunday
Night
Mostly clear. Light E winds at Pass level, light and variable at ridgeline.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. Milder upper slopes, cooler lower slopes. Light to occasionally moderate E ridgeline and Pass level winds.
Sunday
Night
Mostly clear. Light E winds at Pass level, light and variable at ridgeline.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. Cooler eastern part of the zone. Warmer upper slopes and near the Cascade crest. Moderate ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Night
Mostly clear. Light to moderate ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. Cooler eastern part of the zone. Warmer upper slopes and near the Cascade crest. Light to moderate ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Night
Mostly clear. Light to occasionally moderate ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. Light to moderate ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Night
Mostly clear. Light to occasionally moderate ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Mostly sunny. Moderate ridgeline winds.
Sunday
Night
Mostly clear. Moderate ridgeline winds becoming lighter after midnight.
The NWAC program is administered by the USDA-Forest Service and operates from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Seattle. NWAC services are made possible by important collaboration and support from a wide variety of federal, state and private cooperators.
The 5000’ temperature forecast does not imply a trend over the 12 hr period and only represents the max and min temperatures within a 12 hr period in the zone. The 6-hr snow level forecast, the forecast discussion, and weather forecast sections may add detail regarding temperature trends.
The snow level forecast represents the general snow level over a 6 hr time period. Freezing levels are forecast when precipitation is not expected.
*Easterly or offshore flow is highlighted with an asterisk when we expect relatively cool east winds in the major Cascade Passes. Easterly flow will often lead to temperature inversions and is a key variable for forecasting precipitation type in the Cascade Passes. Strong easterly flow events can affect terrain on a more regional scale.
Ridgeline winds are the average wind speed and direction over a 6 hr time period.
The wind forecast represents an elevation range instead of a single elevation slice. The elevation range overlaps with the near and above treeline elevation bands in the avalanche forecast and differs per zone.
Wind direction indicates the direction the wind originates or comes from on the 16-point compass rose.
Water Equivalent (WE) is the liquid water equivalent of all precipitation types; rain, snow, ice pellets, etc., forecast to the hundredth of an inch at specific locations. To use WE as a proxy for snowfall amounts, start with a snow to water ratio of 10:1 (10 inches of snow = 1 inch WE). Temperatures at or near freezing will generally have a lower ratio (heavy wet snow) and very cold temperatures can have a much higher ratio (dry fluffy snow).